Tell me if this sounds familiar…

You begin talking to someone in early November about listing their home, and once things start showing some promise, they suddenly blurt out this dreaded sentence:

“We’ve decided it might be best to wait until after the holidays.”

Or even more specifically…

“We think we’ll get better offers when more people are looking in the new year.”

You can hardly blame ‘em… they’re dealing with their biggest asset, and they think they’re making a wise decision.

But deep down, you know you can get them top dollar now, if only you could overcome their pesky “holiday”-related objections.

Keep reading to find out how.

Let Me Introduce You to Today’s Guest

At Success Summit back in August, one of our breakout sessions was a fun and feisty competition called “The Expired Role Play Championship.”

Today’s guest claimed that title, and his name is Tom Toole III from Philadelphia, PA.

Now, we’re not talking Expireds on today’s show, but dealing with an Expired listing is nothing but a series of objection handlers, and Tom is one of the best at handling them.

So I asked him to join me to address four of the most common “holiday” objections he gets – and how he overcomes them – year in and year out.

Objection No. 1: “No one’s looking for homes right now.”

3 points to make:

  • Lower inventory = less competition for your home
  • Those buyers who are looking are serious; no one does this for fun this time of year
  • With less competition and serious buyers looking, it’s nice to be the one of the only options out there

How Tom Toole says it:

“I can tell you’ve been talking to other agents, because a lot of them are going to tell you that same thing. What I know is that the people that are looking during the holidays, they’re serious. They’re buying a home. And while less volume of homes sell, inventory is also lower. So there’s less competition for you, and when you’re the only option in town and people are losing out on houses and you’ve got serious buyers looking to do something, that’s the kind of situation you want to be in, right?”

Objection No. 2: “Won’t my home show better in the spring?”

Important point to make:

  • It’s all about buyers having a positive emotional response to a home. What’s more emotional than the holidays?

How Tom Toole says it:

“The home is going to show well no matter what, if you prep it properly, and we’ve got a service available to do that. It’s about buyers having the right emotional reaction when they walk through the door. And what’s more emotional than the holiday season? Being there with your family, envisioning your memories happening when you see the tree up, when you see the decorations there. So that sounds a lot more emotional to me than just some flowers in the flower bed, right?”